"Cactus Desert Drums electronic synth drum brain - a very rare UK-designed electronic drum module from the '80s. There's not much information available about this, but I believe it was manufactured in the UK in the '80s in competition with companies like Simmons. Like the Simmons SDSV, it's a modular design - it has 5 instruments fitted, and you can insert up to 5 extra cards - one has been added here. There are 10 trigger inputs and a separate output for each instrument plus a stereo mix output. Each instrument has a range of controls such as pitch, decay and filter, and there's a headphone socket and a digital interface socket of some kind. It's big, heavy, fairly battered and has wooden end cheeks.
It's sort of working - each instrument makes a sound when triggered, and all the knobs seem to do something. I triggered it using a drum machine, but you can use pads, clicks from tape, whatever. The sounds are a bit odd - they should be Bass, Snare, Tom 1, Tom 2, Tom 3 and Digital Tom, but they're actually more like a white noise splash, a thump, a squeak, an orchestral hit, a clank and and a clap. Obviously the sound chips have been modified - I'm not sure whether they are compatible with Simmons chips. So it does make a wide variety of weird noises, but perhaps not what you would expect. No substitute for a modern digital drum kit then, but possibly useful for weird sounds, modification, spares for another Cactus kit, or experimentation."
You can find some specs and an additional image on sequencer.de
20-24 Apr: Queen St. Studios, Belfast UK 04-09 May: eNKa, Berlin DE 25-29 May: Lydgalleriet, Bergen NO 01-05 Jun: WORM, Rotterdam NL
.:::NEANDERTHAL ELECTRONICS:::.
More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal predecessors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins...), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others.
Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it "easier" to make music, so long as we channel our creativity into such socially acceptable avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. As with any established genre, the results are often completely predictable, and therefore quite boring.
But some of us, deep in our wild hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!
This 5 day workshop is designed for 8-10 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. They are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips...) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. Each is a tiny world of its own, using primitive analog computers in combination with feedback, sensors and audio inputs to create a unique sound. Even from the same plan, no two are alike!
Participants are encouraged to use found materials for the construction of their personal instrument. The workshop concludes with a group performance and an invitation to the audience to experiment with each of the instruments which have been created.
Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and heavy metal music. He has played live experimental sound as Macumbista or Derek Holzer--as well as taught workshops in Pure Data and electronics--across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand. http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista http://www.umatic.nl/info_derek.html
.:::REGISTRATION INFO:::.
Please register early for all workshops, as they are limited to 10 places each! All workshop fees include electronic components + use of tools.
BELFAST
***DATES: Monday 20 April - Friday 24 April 2009 10.00-16.00 daily ***LOCATION: Digital Arts Studios, 37-39 Queen Street Belfast BT1 6EA ***COST: This workshop is FREE! ***FINAL PRESENTATION: Saturday, 25 April 2009 9pm til late. Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court Belfast BT1 6BX. £5 donation welcome. ***REGISTRATION: events@digitalartsstudios.com or phone 02890312900
"1986 Ensoniq ESQ-1. All sounds programmed by WC Olo Garb. Video editing by WC Olo Garb. ||| Syntezatory.prv.pl Videos: showing you not what a synthesizer can do, but what a man can do with a synthesizer."
YouTube via bulksagara. "poor cue ds-10 nintendo" Update via the world of next tuesday in the comments: "FYI - it's a cover of YMO's song "Cue", which itself seems to have been influenced by Ultravox's "Passionate Reply"."
YouTube via djwidow420. Roland TR-505 "MODIFIED VINTAGE ANALOGUE ECHO UNIT,WITH 6 NEW CONTROLS FOR VAST DELAYS,FEEDBACK,ECHOES AND SELF OSCILLATION. THE DUB SOUND ECHO UNIT!"
